The Masked Tide
by Proudhollow
Summary: When a powerfull guild is distroyed and goes missing the counsel call up a team consiting of three guilds and sevrel saints to investigate. Once "that man" finds out and joins the fun. Well it will all go to hell as they slowly sucume to the maddness of the masked family as they seak to distroy and ravage the strongist the land has. after all this aint no fairy tail. OC world
1. Falling of a guild

The guild hall, once standing tall and proud is now standing wrecked, the timbers cracked and broken. As dust slowly fell through the remains of the roof a single man stood in the centre of the now crumbling ruins. His head tilted to one side he stood motionless and waiting ignoring even the creaking of the building threating to finely collapse under its own weight. Even as the dying moaned around him no mercy or guilt could be seen from him his green mask the shape of a simple skull covering his face, hiding his emotions. But then even under the mask he wore nothing but contempt for the weakness around him.

The towering 6'2 man only reacted once he heard the hoofs battering the earth. It amused him how despite how easily they could obtain faster transport they always stuck with there horse's, for tradition they liked to say. A tradition that wouldn't matter much longer for them any longer, not after tonight. He carefully adjusted his vest. Letting it hang open the red and black patterned vest hung loosely over his shoulders. He smiled as he sew the first of the horses in the distance. Riding through the ruins of the town.

Yowai Orihari, guild master of Ceaser's legion pushed his horse faster and faster. This town and home lay in ruins around him. How he could not understand, he hand been gone less then an hour. Riding out with his guild to attack a bandits camp. One they found empty of anything but death by the time they arrived. This plus the state of the town. He cursed to him self softly this attacker had laid his ploy well he would have a massive head start and he feared he may never find the group that orchestrated this attack. Even his guild hall the once shining spire of the city was missing from the sky line. He was surprised to find the man standing there. Vest open nothing under it, trainers and dirty jeans stained with dust. Leaping of his horse he landed in fount of the man. The rest of his guild wouldn't be long even with him going ahead. No one had bested this re-equip guild he wouldn't let this man be the first.

"What happened here and who are you?" Yowai demanded of the man. Instead of replying the man simply gestured around him.

"You WILL answer me" He screamed at the masked man. Seeing the dead around him. He had lost many friends here today. The masked man sighed.

"Fine" The masked man answered grudgingly "You had a slight rodent problem and I.. .I am the exterminator. Don't worry even for rodents they where surprisingly weak" The exterminators amusement could be heard behind his voice.

Cursing in anger Yowai quickly equipped armour and his sword and swung at the man. The masked man didn't move to defend, didn't move to dodge, he didn't move at all. The blade plunged at the man and hit his vest yet did not pass through. Yowai screamed in rage at instead thrust at the mans bear chest. Again the sword could not pierce him. Sighing the man simply reached up and grabbed the blade the metal easily bending and crumpling under his hand as if made of paper.

"I thought you where supposed to me strong, shame my skin was armour enough" Raising his hand calmly he simply flicked the guild master in the chest and watched as Yowai flew through the air his armour caving in his ribcage shattering. Before landing in a heap. The exterminator looked down at the man.

"I at least wanted a proper fight i'm bored cant you provide me some entertainment" Disappointment crept into the mans voice

"I guess not" Yowai slowly staged to his feat remaining silent focusing on conserving his strength. Then the first horse passed him. The rest of his guild roared charging into the attack. The masked man lazily kicked a rock at the wall. The rock hit it and sailed on through barely slowing down. The wall however already badly damaged crumbled into itself and the building finely lost the last of its support collapsed forward. The first row of the guilds charge where to close getting instantly crushed. The rest jumped of there horses leaving the animals to there fate while saving themselves. Yet again the man stood there not moving letting the building fall around him even as timbers fell atop him they simply hit him broke and fell at his feat. The green masked enemy barely seemed to notice.

Yowai watched in horror as his friends where crushed by the building more friends that would never laugh or drink with again. His guild led another charge. One 100 in number he new over 20 where lost by the building collapsing. The man kicked half a timber beam at his men despite barely looking like he'd stepped forward the beam flew into his men killing more and refusing to stop moving. At least another dozen had fallen and they had yet to even reach him. Picking up the other half of the timber beam as if it weighed nothing he throw it with a flick of his hand. Flying straight as a javelin he watched it sail through his men's ranks. He'd be surprised if he had 50 men left. But at least they had reached him now.

The first sword strike simply caused the blade to bend over his shoulder. The masked man nudged the man backwards and his chest caved in completely. He was dead before he hit the ground. The next attack aimed for the neck. The sword simply folded in the middle and the mage kept going forward colliding with this killer was like hitting a brick wall and this brick wall decided to hit back. There was nothing left of the man from his knees up and all the men behind him had suffered a similar fate with a punch and the shockwave it had caused another 6 men where dead, 7 more buildings behind it had collapsed. And the killer hadn't even thrown a tenth of his strength behind it. Maybe even less then this Yowai thought to himself.

Nothing seamed to work. Swords, axes, spears, arrows nothing seamed to work and Yowai could just watch early able to do more then stand with the damage he had taken he watched as this stranger tore apart and killed his friends. Catching an arrow and throwing it at the shooter. He'd be surprised if the arrow had come crashing to earth yet. Budging an axe user with the weapon handle. Simply slapping a man aside his skull now caved in. Soon there was no one left and this green masked stranger didn't look like he'd tried. He was pretty sure he could hear him yawning while throwing someone the length of the town.

"Can I at least have the name of my killer before I die" Yowai asked as the stranger started towards him. The masked individual seemed to consider it before replying calmly.

"Maddqness, the q is silent" Yowai didn't have time to ponder what q was in his name before the man hit him in the chest his other hand on his shoulder so he wouldn't fly. As he felt the rest of his chest cave in he fell and this man, Madqness he had called him self, started to drag him away from the town slowly walking towards the exit of the town. Walking through walls as if they weren't there. When an enemy thinks his won is when there most vulnerable Yowai thought to him self and his vision quickly blacking he silently snagged a sword of one of his fallen friends he suddenly pushed forward attacking the back of Madqness neck with the last of his strength. The sword crumpled and Madqness turned to the man he was dragging. He laughed quietly and felt where the attack had landed.

"A pinprick of blood. Damn you where stronger then I thought but sorry friend" Madqness leaned in close "This ain't no fairy tail. The good guys don't get to win." And with that he calmly crushed Yowai's neck and the last of Ceaser's legion died. Madqness simply walked out the village dragging the body behind him.

The 10 wizard saints hated meetings. On principle. They had to be brought into a dark room, with people watching everywhere. Traveling miles to talk with people that some of them couldn't stand. But if they were brought into a meeting they knew at least that it was serious. The council member walked in.

'How many of you here remember a Mr Zuki Orihari?' he stated clearly. Mutters went up around room, until one saint slammed his fist down

'How could we forget him, he ripped my arm off for saying her couldn't fight 2 of us at once and win.' A laugh came across from the other side of the room.

'He was right though wasn't he, he could and did' The one armed saint was suddenly in the face of the saint who spoke.

'Careful what you say Rirakkusu' the one armed saint grumbled 'or you may be losing an arm of your own'

'SILANCE' the council member screeched. 'We have more pressing matters then idle grudges. Yesterday Mr Orihari's brother a Mr Yowai's town and guild where found destroyed. Mr Yowai's body is missing it is assumed the person or persons who commenced this attack took the body or the Mr Yowai had gone rouge. Either option has dire consequences'

There was complete silence until the council member continued

'As you may not know Zuki's brother Yowai had a sparring match with his brother 10 years ago. They matched in strength and more than 3 miles have been left uninhabitable by the fight. Please remember this was a friendly battle between the two"

Once again all that met his words was silence.

'We suspect that they were attacked by a large group of S class mages wh-'

'You're wrong' the member was interrupted. A middle aged man with grey hair and a scar running down his check lent forward, His sword on his lap, his green eyes boring into the council member.

The council member frowned 'If you would let me continue Mr Kenshi I was abo-'

'I will not let you continue as you have no idea what you're talking about' Kenshi interrupted again. The council member glared at him again but instead of acknowledging this Kenshi addressed the other wizard saints

'I knew Zuki's brother Yowai personally as well as his guild; they focused in army tactics, making a wall of defence so powerful that it's almost impossible to break. I've watched them take out Dark guilds with 5 times the number of mages they had and a lot of those mages where more powerful then Yowai's entire guild except Yowai himself' they would not have lost against a large amount of tropes under any conditions. They must have been wiped out by a group of no more than 10 men. Small enough to split up and destroy their army tactics. After all there used to fighting bulks of men, not 10 single ones that can slip into their ranks.'

A couple of the others nodded in agreement.

'This means that we have a group of 10 dark mages powerful enough to wipe out the third strongest guild this world has without taking any casualty's. It means that mutable guilds are in danger and we could soon be seeing guilds disappearing, blinking out like lights. But first we have a much more pressing matter one that could leave millions of pounds of damage and a countless lives lost"

The guild masters listened all eyes on Kenshi.

'Who's gunna tell Zuki that his brothers ether dead or rouge'

He let out a booming laugh at the other guild saints shudders and looks of fear.

 **AN: Hey Proudhollow here after losing all my data for this fanfic, having to re-write the plot and me just being generally lazy it has taken a lot longer to get this going again then id planed or would like to admit however here it is my second attempt at corrupted minds but with a plot that's only slightly similar at the key points :p I'm going to update this once every week or two and keep it going. Specially thanks to Mad who's been patient with me and helped me with designs and personality's for characters by basically making them for me and even being a less evil and not an unkind version of one of them. I also currently dont have a beta for this story so please let me know via PM if iv made any mistakes and i will correct them when i can. thank you. Hope you enjoy and please review**


	2. Baiorin's bad day

Baiorin was having a bad day. First he had screwed up the deal with the twilight guild they had scammed him and he knew it but he just couldn't concentrate around the person they sent. The way they held themselves the disinterest in the whole thing and the power leaking out of him, his head just seemed to panic around them. Secondly he had failed to get the protection money and for that he knew Zetsubo was going to be pissed. He couldn't just kill the shop keepers though. They would be persuaded to pass them the money another way. After all no one in this town dare defy them for long, they owned this town and everyone here knew it. Thirdly he was being fallowed skilfully maybe but he knew they were there. Turning down an ally he pressed on till they were hidden from the street before spinning round.

"All right come out" He commanded at the darkness and watched carefully as a dark shape pulled itself out of a shadow.

"Damn." The shape spoke its voice seamed to drag and echo. "How'd you know?"

"You don't need to know shadow, now why where you fallowing me fiend?" Baiorin glanced around "And tell your friends to detach them selves as well." The shadow seemed to let out a long drawn out laugh before several more of the shapes detached them selves from shadows.

"Because we were asked to" The voice seemed to come from all of them al once yet at the same time he felt the voice echoing in his head as if it was a mere thought.

"By who?" Baiorin demanded

"By those who asked us to fallow you. Although they know you don't belong to that guild. Do you thief?" Baiorin's breathe quickened.

'If they know that I'm a thief then these and there master know that I am no mage.' Baiorin lent on one of the walls

"Oh then fiend if I don't work for the guild then who do I work for?" "He needed to know what they knew and he needed to buy time and if this fiend's attempted the thief's network harm. Quietly he places his foot so that it hocked a small handle hidden on a manhole cover.

"Those that you hope are watching now thief." The darkness seamed to move freely. Always having humanoid shapes but nether being right. Starched out torsos, extra limbs, missing limbs, limbs in wrong places. They were never quite right. Except one. Baiorin noted this and frowned. He knew little of this magic but he suspected he had found the casters flaw. Staring at the 5 blobs of darkness he readied himself.

"I ask one last time fiends, why are you here?" He demanded hotly.

"Worry not thief we are not here to hunt your kin, only those that belong to the guild. However you belong to both and the world could do with one less thief." Baiorin waited for the attack to come however none did. It was then he realised they knew he had an escape route planed. If they attacked first he could use the confusion to get away. If he didn't whoever they were working for would arrive and make sure he couldn't flee. He was in a stale mate but if he didn't act soon the fiends would have the advantage.

Baiorin acted quickly, sprinting forward and striking out at the nearest shape and lashing out with a punch. The fiend moved forward towards the punch and as the fist landed the being seemed to separate like gas. The being had completely dissipated and Baiorin smiled

'The mage must be weak and can't hold there form.' he thought to himself before glancing at the fiend that seemed more humanoid then the others. Quickly dashing forward he ignored all the others and drawing a small dagger he flung it at the humanoid fiend who stepped out of its path. Baiorin smiled sickly. Quickly drawing another dagger he slashed at the fiend instead and again it was forced to dodge the attack.

"Games up mage I know you're in there so show yourself and I can finish this" he taunted at the shape. Smiling he taunted the shape "hiding within one of your fiends wasn't a bad idea but too bad. Now let me finish you" Baiorin waited but quickly cursed as he heard a faint noise behind him. Cursing himself for falling for a trick the man quickly spun only barely blocking the blade of a long black blade. Cursing he quickly backed and considered his options.

The woman stood in front of him. Her dirty blond hair reaching the floor and with bangs covering the side of her face. Her ripped jeans caressed as she slowly bent her knees and readied her blade. Glancing up he carefully watched the blade.

'A long black blade as dark as night with a handle white as snow and no scabbed. Huh even the swords magic then that makes life easier. After all who's ever heard of a mage that's any good without their magic.' Quietly reaching into his pocket he grabbed a bag of powder. If inhaled it disrupted the flow of magic through someone's body, but only for a couple of minutes.

"So" Baiorin tried. "Who comes into this territory planning to fight the guild running this place? And who is it that plans to make an enemy of the thieves? You know we run this place right? and we only act if we have too or are paid enough to?" The woman watched him carefully

"You ask a lot of questions" She replied simply. Watching him closely waiting for him to move.

"And yet you answer none of them." Baiorin replied. "When a thief asks you answer" The women smiled sweetly at him.

"Fine then. I am Wisteria, thief this city is a slum why not help them?" Baiorin grimaced

"I guess in a way we do. We were the ones that hired you. Although we know you may hunt a few of us too. It was an acceptable risk."

"One that you will be forced to answer too" They both returned to slowly watching each other. In the end Wisteria acted first lunging forward with her blade before quickly slashing upward. Baiorin jumped back and quickly spun to the side, seeing his opportunity he swung forward with his dagger not expecting a second short sword to appear in her second. The blade as white as snow and handle as dark as night had blocked his dagger strike and he quickly retreated backwards before lunging forward again.

Wisteria twisted crossing her swords blocking the strike before flicking her blade forward aiming to slice his arm off at the elbow but he moved to the side quickly and flung his unarmed arm up throwing some kind of powder at her. Wisteria stepped back temporally blinded and coughing. Seeing the dagger thrust at her she swiped up her short sword intending to block the strike, instead the blade shattered forcing her to dodge and gaining a slice on her cheek for her troubles. Cursing she jumped back and thrust her hand forward.

"Yang: Leach" Wisteria pushed the magic forward only to find she couldn't use it. She growled while dodging the dagger again

"Yang: leach" She screamed again only for nothing to happen again.

"Not so good without your magic are you mage." Baiorin smiled. His plan had worked and everyone knew once you take a mage's power there useless the most they can do is dodge.

'If I kill her boss will be pissed. We still need this mage to take out Zetsubo and his guild, I'll use this chance to knock her back and escape' He sprinted forward and aimed a slash with his dagger expecting her to dodge. Instead she grabbed his wrist bending it back painfully before smashing her knee into his stomach. Baiorin's eyes went wide as the breath left him and her elbow drove into his back. He felt his legs give out she held him up only by his wrist before turn and twisting his arm while holding it out straight. Now forced to his knees he could only watch as she thrust her palm forward into his elbow shattering the joint. Baiorin screamed.

"I wanted to do this easy and painless ya know" Wisteria spoke quietly down at him before driving her foot into his chest sending him sprawling. "I tried to take your life without you knowing I was there. Then I tried to take it with a single slice. Why couldn't you let it be easy?"

Baiorin slowly crawled backwards cradling his arm to his chest as she walked towards him. Sighing he steadily stood his back to a wall. He flung himself forward but she simply moved to one side a kicked down taking out his legs. Baiorin sprawled forward and landed heavily on metal. He grinned to himself as he quickly pulled it open.

Landing heavily Baiorin sprinted down a tunnel determined to warn the boss. Taking as many turns as possible to confuse the mage. He never sew her fallow but knew he couldn't be too careful.

* * *

Baiorin grimaced as her walked through the thieves' road. The thieves ran the city and all the underground activity. As well as running the black market they collect protection money from those who ran the city. Never much as this city was little more than a slum but there where many markets so they made a good profit. In return they stopped anybody planning to rob the owner or employ's as well as protecting their family. They also took offers and jobs from the city's people. They always paid in the end. After all you never crossed a thief. At least that's how it was until Zetsubo and his dark guild and walked in. They had quickly killed all assassins the thief's sent. You just couldn't seem to kill their leader. They had quickly destroyed the thieves hold on the city and applied their own. Whereas the thieves only took a little this guild was chocking the town of their money. So they made Baiorin act as a mage to infiltrate and get info while they called in help from an official guild. One of whose members had just tried to kill him.

Baiorin was not yet considered a thief but he worked for one and that was who he intended to talk to. Walking up to the heavy wooden door Baiorin once again thanked the tunnels that they had dug out and used under the city. The roads that only they dared to use. The thieves' road was the name the city had given it. He knocked heavily on the door and a watcher walked out of the shadows next to him. Recognising him quickly he swore

"Baiorin what happened to you?!"

"Don't worry old friend." Baiorin replied quickly. "I'll heal but I need to talk to the boss" The watcher nodded before banging on the wooden door four times and disappearing into the shadows. The door swung open seemingly of its own accord and Baiorin stepped into the room as the door swung shut behind him. The room was nothing short of luxurious the carpet a deep dark read. The walls lined with tapestries and a large wooden desk at the far end, behind which sat the man he wanted to talk to, his boss and a true thief. Ceryni.

He watched the man waiting for him to speak. Ceryni wasn't a tall man only 5'2. His skin had seemed to taken the colour of the city original pale his skin was now dyed gray by the dust and dirt of the city. He sat up carefully his blue eyes gently watching over Baiorin. His hair was cut short like most in the city. Despite the fact that Baiorin was his number two and stood well over a foot taller the man still scared him. Ceryni's eyes fell to Baiorin's arm still cradled awkwardly on his chest.

"Baiorin my friend what happened?" Ceryni shot out of his chair and shot to his side and started examining his arm.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I best not return to the guild it seems your hunters you ordered are hear to destroy it. I meet one of them in an ally and they almost ended me. They would have succeed if the powder you gave me hadn't worked. Quite frankly this is what they managed without it" Ceryni smiled as he listened.

"He must have been planing for you to be a message friend. Im guessing one that was meant as a warning if we tried to dupe them or put to much force on the town. Still im happy you came back to us alive if you met him." Ceryni laughed to him self. "I would have been glade if there'd been enough left to identify you after meeting him. After all we all know his reputation" Baiorin frowned at his boss

"Forgive me Ceryni but I don't understand it was no man I met it was a woman" Ceryni only froze as a response.

"You met her. You met his novice and survived" Ceryni openly stared at his friend "You... You are one lucky man. She would have aimed for a kill nothing more nothing less. Ether she underestimated you or you are more skilled then any thief except maybe me and Dokukumo and personally im betting on the prior." Baiorin went pale.

"Sir I think she must have thought me much weaker then I am. She only started with one blade and seemed to only use her magic as a last resort. By then the powder had taken effect. She said her name was Wisteria and she was just." Baiorin paused seeming to shake "She wouldn't hesitate."

"We hired the best my friend. His novice is said to be strong and many think" Ceryni paused and chuckled "Nay I believe many fear that she'll be far stronger then her master one day" Four knocks sounded on the door before the watchers head came through the opening.

"What is it Gol?"

"Sir we just got a message. The guild was engaged in a fight 15 minutes ago and now it seems a dark dome has encased it." Ceryni smiled at the news.

"Thank you Gol. Im poping out please look after the place but." Ceryni paused "No drinking till after your shift ends this time. Don't force me to punish you good guards are hard to find don't force me to replace you" Ceryni's voice had turned dark.

"Yes sir, sorry sir" Ceryni nodded

"Baiorin follow me." His tone held no room for argument. "I believe we will have guests soon expecting payment so we need your arm set so you can be with me when we deliver it. After all from the sounds of it he will be on his way soon." Ceryni smiled "You can say hi to your little sparing partner and I can say hi to the one we employed." Ceryni stopped and spoke calmly

"Mullok please guide I guests to the best guest room we have and break out the good stuff for them"

"Yes sir" A voice replied and hurried out of the dark and a man quickly emerged and sprinted off. Baiorin turned to his friend.

"Ceryni are you really breaking out the Sachakan Dark for these guild."

"Not a guild old friend." Ceryni replied "Just two people the master and novice and perhaps the most powerful duo since he teamed with his brother until there unfortunate falling out. Now come we still need to get your arm set and it wont do to keep the great Zuki Orihari waiting."

* * *

 **AN: Sorry been a while but my tablet crapped out on me but iv got my laptop working insted so back to once a week. I know this chapters a lil diffrent but it'll be back to all your magic stuff next chap. Hope to see ya there and pls leave a review  
**


	3. Wisteria's bad day

Wisteria and Zuki had entered the town a couple of days before while the moon had been up. Carefully they picked there way through the town watching the way this guild went about there business. Every day they seemed to send men out to go into the centre of the town. The area was littered with different markets and stalls and these men would go to each and damage there wears, steal food and demand a large sum of money. Zuki frowned as he watched it all happen. There where a few times where businesses would refuse to pay and there stalls would then have accidents. Fires would brake out money missing and everything would be ruined before finely the stall owner would go missing. Watching the large building that was being built right in the middle of the slums was the next job and he quickly sent wisteria to observe it.

She didn't need to stay there long. Wisteria watched as homes where destroyed and the people who lived there where forced to help the building of the new guild hall, they where forced to work until they dropped at witch point they where just thrown out of the way. Dozens of body's laid there from just one days work and Wisteria cursed. There informant was right and although they where yet to be listed as a dark guild they had to be stopped now. Shaking her head she returned to Zuki.

The plan was simple, Wisteria would take out any one out of the guild while trying to remain as quiet as possible. She didn't want them to have a chance to alert the others other wise she was gunna have a lot more of these mages to round up. Meanwhile Zuki would enter the main guild and whip them out there. The plan was good and they got ready to act.

Wisteria ran towards the centre of town and used the rooftops rather then the winding roads bellow and quickly settled in the corner of the market, it didn't take long. Wisteria watched as a group of five entered the market and split up. Almost instantly one stuck out to her, rather then walking up to a food stole and demanding to be served he waited in line before calmly collecting the payment. The amount of witch being a lot smaller then what was usually collected. He nodded to the stall owner before paying for the food and wondering to the next stall. There he repeated his previous actions while staying calm and polite. Meanwhile the other four had already ripped a large sum of money out of the hands of there rightful owners. When one store owner refused to pay the mage had raised his hand and now the entire stall was ablaze, as civilians and other store owners alike rushed over trying to stop the flames before they spread the four guild members had rushed over to different stalls and started taking money and items before demanding there money on top of that. Glancing back over to the fifth member she noticed he was silently helping them fight the flames, grabbing pales of water when no one was watching and assisting in the fight against the fire.

Her first opportunity came ten minutes latter as one of the mages staged away from the group dragging a girl behind him into an ally. Wisteria quickly dropped down down behind him and fallowed him in. He throw the girl down in front of him grinning and stepped forward starting to undo his belt. Wisteria made sure he didn't get a chance to do any thing else before reaching from behind and garbing his neck, Dragging him backwards she quickly drew a small razor and slit his throat before duping the body behind a near by building keeping it out of sight. She nodded to the girl putting her finger up to her lips before leaving back into the main square.

Wisteria quickly returned to the market silently mingling with the crowd she easily found the four remaining mages. One mage was stealing food from any store he visited and another purposely bumping into people and demanding money from them as 'compensation.' She silently walked over to a store pretending to be browsing there wares while watching them both. Seeing the first mage on the move she aimed for the same store. Finding herself next to the man she waited until he had his food before turning and walking straight into the man causing him to drop his food. She went to walk away when he grabbed her by her shoulder and spun her round.

"Oy. Where do you think your going? You ruined my clothes and my food" Wisteria let out a small whimper and slowly started walking backwards. Before turning and running up to the second guild member. Closing her eyes she ran straight into him.

"Its just not your day is it little girl." Wisteria backed up fast only for the first member to grab her by the shoulders. Before pinning her arms behind her back.

"Let go!" Wisteria screamed before slamming her foot into the man's ankle. The man let out a grunt of pain and let go of her arms involenteraly. Wisteria ran off and both men quickly gave chase. As third mage quickly joined the chase Wisteria watched the last mage use the commotion to silently leave. She quickly darted into an ally making sure the three mages watched her enter. Wisteria quickly spun and backed up hitting a dead end and let her knees bend so that she looked helpless lent against the wall. The three mages entered and smiled watching her cornered.

"Please," she begged breathing heavily. "Please don't hurt me" The mages smiled stepping closer.

In an instant she summoned her two swords and lashed out quickly beheading two of the men with one strike. The last mage jumped back quickly glancing at the blades. The thin blade as dark as night and as long as a man's arm twice over with a handle the colour of snow. And the shorter blade witch blades length would reach from a man's elbow to the tips of his fingers and as wide as a man's hand. The stark opposite of the other blade this smaller sword had a handle as dark as a midnight sky and a blade as white as snow that falls from the sky. The man glanced at the beautiful blades recognising them instantly.

"The Yin, yang blades but that must mean your his... Your Zukis apprentice aren't you?" Instead of replying she lunged forward. The man jumped backwards cursing, throwing his hand up he summoned flame into his hand but before he could finish the spell Wisteria had changed the blades direction. Landing with her knees bent she sweeped the blade upwards taking off the man's hand before extending her knee s into a lunge and piercing the man's throat. She quickly slashed the blade to the right, cleaving through the neck. The man was dead before he hit the floor. Wisteria stood and quickly flicked her black blade to the left and in doing so removed any blood from it before stabbing her sword into the ground, letting out a small prayer and scrambling to the roof tops. If she didn't act quickly she knew she'd loss the last man in the slums of the city streets.

Wisteria quickly found the man and fallowed him through the streets hiding on the roof tops quickly passing from building to building. At least with the city being a slum the buildings where close together she thought to her self as she travelled. After an hour of travelling the man reached an inn and the man quickly hurried upstairs. Quickly she scaled the side of the inn and slipped into a room via the window. Quickly leaving the room she travelled down the hall and watched this stranger walk into a room. Silently entering the room next to it she summoned her black sword and slowly pushed it into the wall until she felt little resistance. Smiling she grabbed a glass and placed it to the tiny gap. By doing this she could hear everything in the other room clearly, after all she had to make sure he was alone before securing the kill.

"you're late" A voice from the other room boomed.

"I apologise, I had trouble ditching a few friends of mine and I would hate to have our little meeting discovered by the guild. After all if they found out about this meeting the ramifications for both myself as-well as you and your associates would be... troubling." A second voice replied. 'This must but the mage' she thought to her self as the voice's started speaking again.

"Be late again and you loss our business. We need the powder you and your friends use. A barrel will do." The voice demanded

"Powder? I'm sure I don't know what powder your talking about" The mage replied calmly.

"Please don't treat us like fools. We know that you and your friends use it. Ceryni is good for the powder little thief and we know you sell it to special customers. We're willing to pay thief but we need a barrel" The man was demanding but impatient.

"Okay okay fine keep your voice down we don't want every ear in this building hearing. How much are you willing to pay?"

"100,00 Jewels"

"Please tell me your joking. We charge that for a small bag we cant give you a barrel for that. Look I'll cut you a deal. One barrel for 100,000,00. That's still half what we would normally charge." There was silence for a while before the first voice spoke again.

"We want it for 100,000 and one free favour from our group." More silence

"Fine" The mage replied "Fine but we get to say when we call you on the favour and this stays between us. You squib to any one and we will find you"

"Deal"

"Good get the pay ready. You have a week, don't worry we'll find you when we want to commence the trade." The door slammed. Wisteria sighed. This was not good the last mage was working for Ceryni. Ceryni was a thief, one of the leaders that ran an operation in the town and in several places around the country. One of the leaders of the criminal underground and the person who hired them. 'So that leaves the question' Wisteria thought to her self 'Is he still a target? They where not informed of the infiltrator so I'll have to assume his betrayed the thieves. Still a target.' Wisteria jolted as the door slammed open.

"So, Shall we tell our little thief you where listening in?" Wisteria swore to her self in the door way was a behemoth of a man. Wearing jeans and an open sleeveless jacket chequered red and black and on his head a metal knights helmet. Quickly Wisteria bolted for the window. Jumping she curled up and covered her face as she smashed through the window. Only to be caught on the other side with one arm by another man who's fingers where embedded in the wall leaving him hanging. Wearing the same jeans and jacket but instead of a helmet a green skull mask covered his face.

"Nice try" He said happily before flinging her back into the room where the other masked man caught her before dropping her roughly on the floor.

"Hey don't throw your trash at me" was all he said as the other man climbed through the window.

"You caught it didn't you?" The one with the green mask replied

"Maybe, but its still annoying mad" Mad grinned at his brothers reply.

"So" Mad started. "What do we do with her?"

"well it depends" war picked her up to her feet "Who do you work for child, and why did you listen in?"

"I..I work for the guild sir. They sent me to keep an eye on one of the members cos they thought he was going to betray us." Wisteria said quietly trying to act scared and innocent. The brother wearing the helmet sighed. Moving with speed Wisteria couldn't fallow the brothers knee plunged into her stomach while an arm lashed out and grabbed her shoulder and routed her to the spot. Wisteria knew that if the man wasn't forcefully holding her up she would have crumpled to the ground with that one blow alone. All the air had been smashed out of her and pain sprung from her stomach.

"This time the truth please" The brother asked calmly.

"Fuck" Wisteria spat out. "Fine I was hired by a thief to take out a guild. The little fool is part of them. I was listing to see if I could strike"

"well why didn't you say so little one" The man offered her a hand up. "we can let this one go. The thieves need her and we need them in our good books. If she kills the man its not on us. Lets go mad." The man left the room but Mad walked to the girl and caught her as she stumbled.

"sorry bout him. His just really protective ya know?.. Anyway we've gotta go. Hey that's gunna hurt for a bit so... try to walk it off." The man quickly left the room and fallowed his brother. Wisteria grunted as she lent on the wall. She grimaced and started moving. 'After all' she thought to her self 'I still gotta find my target.'

Wisteria had been meaning to pick up the man's trail as he left the inn but after getting caught by the brothers the trail had gone cold. Running out of options she decided to start scouting the roofs looking for any sign of the man, however she quickly realised this was not an option as the second she tried to climb the pain in her ribs rendered any attempt mute. Sighing she fell on her last option. Black magic was not natural to wisteria and so didn't come naturally. Worse yet her body didn't seem to like using it as doing so for long periods of time tended to leave her feeling sick and faint however she knew she had to find the man and this was her last chance. Focusing she extended her shadow until it torched the buildings shadow and concentrated on the darkness. Instantly she could see and feel everything the shadows touched as long as they where somehow connected to each other and being in the slums wit buildings and shacks built so close together she instantly had a view of a larger part of the slums. He found the man quickly lucky he wasn't to far off and decided on one more risk. Concentration was important for this spell, one mistake would rip her from the shadows but her focus was absolute as she slowly sank downwards and started stalking the man along the shadows themselves.

Wisteria had left the shadows a little while ago and this man was starting to irritate. He seemed to purposely stick to crowds. Seemed to leave almost no openings and she was running out of time as was contemplating making a quick kill with as little witnesses as possible when the man turned down an alleyway. She thanked her luck and went to fallow as she heard the man speak.

"All right come out" The man demanded. Wisteria cursed. He knew that she was fallowing but not where she was she thought to herself. Deciding to by for time she focused on part of the wall near the exit of the allay and pulled part of the shadow of. Making it look humanoid was difficult as it sundered forward but she could hold it. Just. She forced the shadow servant to talk for her as she quickly forced her self back into the shadows and used them to enter the ally unseen.

"Damn." The shape spoke and Wisteria shuddered. She know shed never get used to the way in contorted her voice and the way its voice seamed to drag and echo even in an open space. "How'd you know?"

"You don't need to know shadow, now why where you fallowing me fiend?" The man seemed to glance around "And tell your friends to detach them selves as well." Quietly moving behind the man she forced the shadow to laugh but was now slightly intrigued with the man. Know that a mage learned to summon these in groups was impressive at least as she forced 4 more to emerge from the walls. However hiding in the shadows as well as summoning them had put her at her limit. This was the most she could bring forth and even then she was struggling to hold the new fours shape and could seem them starching and deforming.

"Because we were asked to" She spoke through all of them at once.

"By who?" He demanded. This was going nowhere. She was at a stalemate and she knew it she had over exserted her self and couldn't leave the shadow without losing control and revealing where she was. The shadows would all shot towards here when she lost control and it would give her way.

"By those who asked us to fallow you. Although they know you don't belong to that guild. Do you thief?" She was buying for time as she tried to think of a answer to her problem.

"Oh then fiend if I don't work for the guild then who do I work for?" The man lent as wall as he said this and instantly she knew. He was buying for time to and if he was a thief then he must by waiting till he could escape.

"Those that you hope are watching now thief." She answered him watching closely. He seemed to focus on the original shadow. 'He must think I hide inside it' She decided. 'I need to get him to attack first'

"I ask one last time fiends, why are you here?" He demanded hotly.

"Worry not thief we are not here to hunt your kin, only those that belong to the guild. However you belong to both and the world could do with one less thief."oth and the world could do with one less thief." She taunted out at him. However the man didn't seem to move and he thought her plan had failed until he shot forward and struck out at the nearest servant. The moment his fist hit the shadow moved towards the attack and wisteria thanked the stars he didn't notice it fade through him and into the wall by her.

With one less servant to control she could leave the walls shadow without losing control and did so easily while quickly summoning yang her black blade and slowly crept towards the man. However the man was not done as he sprinted towards the first servant and flung his knife at it. Wisteria quickly dispersed the other servants now that he was focused he never even noticed and with only one servant she could easy make it doge the blade and while the man taunted the shadow she quickly aimed a slash at his neck. The man however must have heard her move as he quickly spun blocking the blade. All that work for nothing all because she hadn't watched her footing and had made a little noise she cursed to herself as the man brook away and put space between them. She watched as he reached into hi jacket and reeded herself to make her next attack knowing even that first swing had cost her as her ribs tore her body with pain she tried to hide it. She couldn't let her opponent see any weakness.

"So" The man spoke. "Who comes into this territory planning to fight the guild running this place? And who is it that plans to make an enemy of the thieves? You know we run this place right? and we only act if we have too or are paid enough to?"

"You ask a lot of questions" She replied simply Concentrating on the fight.

"And yet you answer none of them." He replied. "When a thief asks you answer" Wisteria smiled sweetly at him. If he insisted on this infernal talking then I can at least try to distract him and use that to my advantage

"Fine then. I am Wisteria, thief this city is a slum why not help them?"

"I guess in a way we do. We were the ones that hired you. Although we know you may hunt a few of us too. It was an acceptable risk." Damn she hated that answer it showed he was ready to die. Distracting him this way was not going to work.

"One that you will be forced to answer too" She replied simply They both returned to slowly watching each other. In the end Wisteria acted first lunging forward with her blade before quickly slashing upward. The man jumped back and quickly spun to the side, seeing his opportunity he swung forward with his dagger not expecting a second short sword to appear in her second. He quickly retreated backwards before lunging forward again.

Wisteria twisted crossing her swords blocking the strike she forced her self not to wince as more jolts of pain ran up her body before flicking her blade forward aiming to slice his arm off at the elbow but he moved to the side quickly and flung his unarmed arm up throwing some kind of powder at her. Wisteria stepped back temporally blinded and coughing each cough sending more jolts through her. Seeing the dagger thrust at her she swiped up her short sword intending to block the strike, instead the blade shattered forcing her to dodge and gaining a slice on her cheek for her troubles. Cursing she jumped back. 'Is the damage already that grate that I already cant control my spells' she thought to her self and trust her hand forward. 'Well how about my simplest one'

"Yang: Leach" Wisteria pushed the magic forward only to find she couldn't use it. She growled while dodging the dagger again

"Yang: leach" She screamed again only for nothing to happen again.

"Not so good without your magic are you mage." The man taunted and with that wisteria lost her temper. That taunt meant one thing. He stopped her magic and that powder was the obvious answer. She felt her magic already but if he wanted a fight without it fine. Damn him and damn his silly thoughts. How dare he still my magic.

Wisteria focused on her self. Focused on her bones and mussels and thought back to her own family's training. Her eyes focused as the man sprinted forward as fast as he could but to her he was barely moving at all.. She waited till he was close then esaliy snatch his wrist mid swing with the knife. Bending it backwards to snap it she quickly slammed her knee into his gut She could feel her ribs ache but ignored it. They had haled her attack power and was the reason the man yet lived. She considered her options before slamming her elbow into his spin hoping to snap it. Again the damage to her ribs robbed her of the power she intended for the strike. She slowly looked down to see the man on his knees.

'Fine' She thought to her self. 'If my wound stops me from killing him I'll consider it fate and settle with maiming him' And with that she twisted his arm and slammed down to the elbow and watched as it shattered. To her this seemed like this small unarmed spar had taken days. To him it happened in an instant.

"I wanted to do this easy and painless ya know" Wisteria spoke quietly down at him oblivious to his screams as she gave in to her rage, before driving her foot into his chest sending him sprawling. "I tried to take your life without you knowing I was there. Then I tried to take it with a single slice. Why couldn't you let it be easy?"

He slowly crawled backwards cradling his arm to his chest as she walked towards him. Sighing he steadily stood his back to a wall. He flung himself forward but she simply moved to one side and kicked down taking out his legs. She watched calmly as he sprawled forward and landed heavily on metal. He grinned to himself as he quickly pulled it open. She watched letting him escape, she could easily stop him however she could see the black dome forming in the distance and knew she had to meet with Zuki soon. Sighing she let him leave before turning and slowly walking towards the dome as time returned to its normal spread and her ribs cried out in agony again she simply started limping away and cursed the masked men for her pain.


End file.
